Troublesome Seller - or Scammer

Last week I saw an ad on the AdTrader website for a Disco in Dudley, phoned the seller and asked all the right questions, won't bore you with it all. On a subsequent call he volunteered to fax me the documents, and after a bit of trouble I found that my neighbours had a fax machine but after three attempts by the seller, nothing appeared. He gave me the regd. number and I did an HPI check - all clear. Then we decided to go and see the motor in a couple of days time. Coincidentally, there was an exhibition at the NEC we wanted to see, so I contacted the seller and we made arrangements to meet. We live near Inverness so we flew down to East Midlands, rented a car and stayed with a cousin in Leicester. The seller phoned me when we arrived at the airport and again that evening and we agreed to meet at the NEC at 9am and he said he would phone me to tell me where he was parked. So we set off at 8.15 but were likely to be a few minutes late due to roadworks, so I phoned him. No reply. We arrived at the NEC only 6 minutes late, but no phone call. After three further calls, there was still no reply from him, so we went to the exhibition at 9.45 having given up.
The main reason for going south was to look at the vehicle and he let us spend a considerable sum on flights, rental car and meals and for what? What sick mind does that? After this, I am not travelling miles to see a motor, nor will I arrange to meet a seller anywhere other than the owners address or will I respond to an ad with just a mobile phone number. Was he going to steal the motor the night before or were we going to be robbed of the cash? Just to add insult to injury, Ryanair would not let us on the flight home as I didn't have the right bit of paper, so we had to rent another car and drive back, with an overnight in a hotel. I hope I don't meet this idiot.

You probably had a lucky escape, if he was a genuine seller, he would not want to loose a sales and would have either waited back a bit, incase you were late, or at the very least, have his mobile on so he could be contacted.

I've just found this old thread of mine and decided to 'tie it up'. There was a very good reason why this guy didn't show up at the NEC. He was in custody! I got a phone call a few days later from plod, who had found my number on his mobile phone. It seems that the sale may have been genuine, but he wasn't, as he and his brother had been nicked on fraud charges.

Just an idea to anyone looking at buying a motor miles from where they live, My dad has a hankering for a classic range rover, a few months ago, whilst in india, I got the e-mail found a car but it's in south england and he lives in north east scotland. He wanted me to go look at it with him, I wasent due home for weeks so I told him to get an RAC or AA vehicle check done. It cost about £200 but I doubt we could have travelled down and back up for that. Anyway turns out it was as described appart from not having a chassis so we left it, but hey was still a cheaper way of finding out and didnt waste more than an hour of his time to find out.
I've always been of the oppinion that car purchases are one of the biggest things you buy in life and see no problem with travaling huge distances to get the right car at the right price, but I would definatly do this myself next time, travelled 6 hours once to look at a shogun which was (as assured by the garage selling) rust free, when I got there it was a collander. Seller didnt understand why I was so in pollite.